Post 3: Transportation in Germany

Something that I have found interesting in Germany is the way transportation is sued and viewed. Germany is unlike the United States in that there is a large infrastructure of public transportation, both in individual cities and between them. Germany is also unlike most European counties I have visited, in that there is a strong car culture.

As an exchange student I obviously do not have my own car, but many students I know from Germany have their own car, and families almost all seem to have cars. The biggest difference I have seen between American and German car culture is the types of cars people drive. Obviously there is a preference for German brands over the American and Japanese brands that are so common back in the United States, but also just the type of car. Pick up trucks are absent, as are the large SUVs that dominate the US roadways. Instead there are lots of smaller cars, low vans, and sedans.

The public transportation in Germany is worlds away from the transportation in the US. Trains, trams and buses connect everything you need together, making not have a car a non-issue. I am lucky because my semester ticket from Univeristät Bremen allows me to travel for free in Bremen and to nearby cities, but even if one does not have free transportation, it is very affordable to travel.

It is very interesting to see the difference between Germany and the US as far as transportation is concerned.

Post 2: Apartment Hunting in Germany

So when I arrived in Bremen my original planned living accommodations did not work out as planned, so I suddenly found myself in need of an apartment. I looked all over for different places to living in Bremen. I searched for flat-shares, individual flats, dormitories and student houses. I was lucky enough to be able to stay with a student from Bremen who had studied at Hobart during this time, so I wasn’t stuck at a hotel, but it was still stressful not knowing where I would be living for the next year. Although I wouldn’t want to do it again anytime soon, this experience provided me with a valuable, and unexpected, lesson on life in Germany. Seeing as I have never apartment hunted in the US, I can’t compare, but there are some things about the process in a German university town that I really found interesting.

            First off, there are an amazing variety of choices and option available, and there are not that many that are really what you need, so most of the work is sifting through the many pages of ads for places to live until you can get some places actually worth finding. I had always heard about “apartment hunting” and I had imagined the difficulty would be finding any apartment, but it is really more about finding the right one amongst all the others.

            Secondly what was, to me, very interesting was that if I were going to be sharing a flat with people they would interview me first. We would go out for coffee or hangout for a while after they showed me the apartment, just to get to know me. I found this surprising, but I suppose it makes sense. If you are going to live with someone you want to know who they are first. One thing I found out after the fact is that they often hold these interviews with multiple prospective tenants, so they can pick who they want.

            In the end I decided to stay in a studentenwohnheim right on the University grounds. Although the Uni doesn’t own it there are tons of students living here, and the close walk to class is great. That’s all for now!